Introducing the New Series of Review for Religious

Abstract

Introducing the New Series of Review for Religious David Rohrer Budiash, Phd, Managing Editor The Review for Religious's 2012 closure was met with a deep and sincere chorus of regret. The then-editor of the Review, Fr. Michael Harter, SJ, indicated in the journal's last editorial that the way the Review was being run simply would not be viable into the future. He named two specific challenges the Review was facing: the way the internet made print publications less appealing to younger audiences and the way the traditional readership of Review—those in religious life in the United States—were growing older, while growth in religious life was coming from other parts of the world. Maintenance without change, he wrote, "was not an option." And so, change came: the Review ended over 70 years of publication and a significant voice that many in religious life turned to in order to help understand their vocation went silent. Catholics are, however, an Easter people, and Harter was not morbid. He knew the Review could restart, but if it did, it would have to be re-envisioned and re-designed "with current and future generations of religious in mind." He insisted that the ceasing of publication was a hiatus rather than a death knell. He reminded readers that waiting in silence can itself be richly reflective and counseled that a different institutional partner could take the up the Review's mandate in the future. His words have proved prophetic. In 2019, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men offered itself as a place where just such a re-envisioned and re-designed Review could find a home. CMSM worked to build an editorial board, secure a press, and retain a managing editor to coordinate the pieces of the new series of the Review. The new editorial board understood the seriousness of the challenges Harter wrote about in 2012. They knew that the Review must be able to meet the moment to stay vibrant and contribute to religious life the way it hoped it could. Religious life today is globally interconnected, in part because of the way COVID-19 has pushed practically every aspect of life online. But even prior to COVID, religious life was becoming more intercultural and more intergenerational. Mirroring the general trend in the Church's population, its center is slowly and steadily moving south and east, away from the old centers of strength in Europe and America. They envisioned the new Review as a forum, adapted to the 21st century, inviting religious to think about their vocations, encouraging renewal, and promoting the study of religious life. [End Page 1] From these deliberations sprang the outline of what the new series of the Review would look like. One piece you have in front of you, a peer-reviewed print journal of research on religious life from many disciplines: theology, certainly, but also psychology, sociology, history, canon law, or any of the other many areas of study that can illuminate religious life. A second piece is our online journal, a dynamic web presence dedicated to promoting religious life and discussing the needs of the moment, whether in the forms of essays, art, or curated news. Our first issue of the print journal reflects this diversity of disciplinary perspectives, with contributions from the fields of theology, psychology, sociology, history, and education. There are contributions from men and women religious, brothers and priests, and from the United States, Europe, and Africa. These diverse articles are the first step the Review hopes to take in thinking about religious life in the 21st century from a global perspective. Patrick Sean Moffett, CFC in "Identity, Mission, and New Wineskins" examines recent magisterial documents dealing with religious life, raising the question of the identity of those of religious life during rapidly changing circumstances. He offers a psychological perspective on the development of identity under circumstances of major shifts in religious life. Kevin Grove, CSC also examines recent documents, but with a focus on papal preaching during the World Days for Consecrated Life in his "An Unconventional Christology for Religious Life: Encounter and Development of a Presentation Paradigm." His work examines hypapantē, its liturgical history, and...